Hi folks. As I've said to Geoff in a private post, I can confirm that the course these days is run by civilians. Now, I don't have a problem with that. The problem I have is that they haven't the faintest idea what they are on about.
Leaving aside the shocking standard of the course material (some equipment precis are two pages long!) and their general lack of knowledge of their subject, their total lack of knowledge on the issues 'out there' is inexcusable. They have three military units within twenty minutes drive (a field hospital, a medical regiment and the Defence Dental School) yet when asked why we don't go and visit them I was told "I didn't think of that". That's the standard of people who are teaching there at the moment. Google is their source of info for questions they don't know the answer to.
In fact, probably most worrying of all, they are under the impression that we don't take equipment to pieces 'in the field'.
The course is so bad that, on arrival, the RAF M&D techs are told to just forget everything they have been told at Arborfield. A sad situation for a course run by the Army's centre of excellence for electronics training.
Basically I think it says a lot about the adaptability of our technicians that we are able to do the job despite, rather than because of the training we receive.
